Game of Thrones - Review @ Slant Magazine

May 23rd, 2012, 22:07

Game of Thrones continues to get weak reviews in the North American press with Slant Magazine awarding a score of 2.5/5:

The absence of every major character from books (except Jeor Mormont, Cersei, Chataya, and Lord Varys) isn't a hefty distress, bearing in mind the well-crafted tale and fleshed-out focal characters. Unfortunately, trudging through Game of Thrones requires the same amount of fortitude as waiting for the latest entry in Martin's much-delayed series of novels. Throughout your Westeros adventure, you are beset on all sides by muddy, last-generation textures, characters that phase through doors, marionette facial animations, elongated loading times, archaic RPG menus, and a slapdash battle system.
The latter aspect is particularly egregious. The real-time melee system is a less refined version of the one from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Combat is as swift as a Dothraki warrior, but the constant need to pause and input bleeding, stunning, and takedown attacks into a three-slot radial menu makes for a shuddering experience. Once you've earned enough experience to level up, you can apportion points to your heroes' skills, fighting stances, attributes, and strengths and weaknesses. There are three stances for Alester and Mors and you unlock three more at level seven.

While in theory it seems like a good idea to use established book fiction as a setting for a computer role playing game, but in practice it seems as likely such a game will be 'good' as it is likely a game based off a movie will be 'good.'

Some of this probably has to do with the somewhat impossible task of re-creating a universe as it might exist in the minds of hundreds of thousands, or millions even, of readers. Perhaps such efforts are futile from the start.

— If I'm right but there is no wife around to acknowledge it, am I still right?

I am playing the game right now and I cannot understand how all these major Sites are giving the game such bad reviews…. it is as if they never really played the game…. I can only say that I thoroughly enjoy it….

Originally Posted by Lannister
I am playing the game right now and I cannot understand how all these major Sites are giving the game such bad reviews…. it is as if they never really played the game…. I can only say that I thoroughly enjoy it….

Says the guy called Lannister…

Are you playing on th PC? I suspect that is the major difference between the "major" Sites and most of the people here who likes the game. They all seems to be xbox/ps3 reviews.

Are you playing on th PC? I suspect that is the major difference between the "major" Sites and most of the people here who likes the game. They all seems to be xbox/ps3 reviews.

reading that review is why I don't follow the scores. Pretty much every 'con' they mentioned is something I love about the game. The 'old school RPG feel', the 'need to pause to utter commands', I mean, seriously, it feels like they gave them the game to review and told them it was Quake or something